Family
by Northlight
Summary: Zack thinks about Tinga and her family, and his relationship with his own.


Family (1/1)   
_ Title: Family (1/1)  
Summary: Zack thinks about Tinga and her family, and his relationship with his own.   
Characters: Zack, Tinga, Charlie, Case. Minor mention of Krit.  
Spoilers: Hit a Sista Back  
Rating: PG.  
Disclaimer: Cameron and Eglee.  
Date: May 15, 2001._

Zack had set up on the roof of the building across from Charlie's apartment. The position allowed him a clear view of several of the rooms, and although he appreciated the view his current location afforded him, Zack wished that Tinga's husband had chosen a home less accessible to unfriendly observers. He had known that Logan was setting up a new identity for Charlie and Case, but Zack had not asked where the two were being sent. It had taken him several weeks to track them down himself--Zack rather sourly had to admit that Logan knew what he was doing--but that had provided time in which to think. 

Sharp eyes easily reached across the distance between them, piercing the flimsy barrier the drawn curtains provided. He had lost sight of the two for half an hour while they ate supper in the kitchen. Charlie and Case had re-entered the living-room several minutes earlier. The boy had seated himself on the floor before the coffee-table which had been swept clear of the papers and magazines atop it to make room for the boy's puzzle. The father was sitting on the couch, a book open on his lap. Photos, Zack suspected. Barring the aura of sadness which Zack could sense even from his distant post, the scene looked cozy and domestic. Tinga, he recalled with a pang of regret, had belonged. 

The life which he led had left plenty of room for regret. What had happened to Tinga was one regret which Zack had not been able to push away or justify as necessary or unavoidable. She had needed him more than she had at any time in the past, and he had failed her. It had been a hard realization for Zack, who had spent the last eleven years of his life believing that his every action had been chosen with the best interest of his family firmly fixed in mind. Zack had begun dabbling in a pastime he had hated in others--considerations of what could have been. If only he had returned with Tinga immediately upon the news of the danger her family was is. If he had been there when the exchange was made. If he had contributed to the formation of the plan. He should have at the very least let Tinga know that he would take care of her family as he had failed to take care of her. 

"Family isn't an option, not for us," Zack had said. He had led his life with his own version of family fixed in his mind. Tinga was no weaker than was he. Had Zack truly been the soldier he claimed himself to be, he would have distanced himself from his fellow X5s. They could take care of themselves for the most part, and though he made some transitions easier for them, they could do without his aid. There were situations in which his presence had offered little to no benefit--Brin, and now Tinga. And yet he clung to his weaknesses as fiercely as did Tinga and Max and each other the others. 

He had known about Charlie. Tinga had been careful, but Zack had been able to sense the difference in her home when he had visited. She had been defiant, angered by his protests, and Zack had not pushed her beyond what he sensed to be the limit of her patience with him. Zack hadn't spoken to Charlie, but he had been present in the background when Tinga and her boyfriend enjoyed a date at a nearby restaurant. Zack had glowered at his lasagna, taking quick glances in his sister's direction. She hadn't looked in his direction once that night, her attention caught completely by Charlie. Zack had thought the other man to be weak, a bore and far from worthy of Tinga. She had glowed and smiled and laughed, her hand resting lightly on Charlie's arm. 

He should have been there--Zack had learned to despise those string of words--when Tinga had her son. Zack had chosen to leave rather than watch his sister set down more roots, make herself even more vulnerable. He had tracked down Krit and sparking with useless fury had ordered the other man to pull up and move out. He had driven Krit for days, discontent growing with every glare Krit sent in his direction. Zack had managed to infuriate most of his siblings in the year between the birth of Tinga's son and his next visit to her home. She had carried Case, her face soft and tender as she looked at the child, and Zack had felt a momentary surge of dislike for the boy. 

"Her name is _Tinga_," Zack had informed Charlie, hard-edged pleasure beneath the words. He had clamped his hand around the man's neck and had fought not to snap Charlie's neck. He had used Tinga's name and his own easy strength to impress upon the other man that Tinga was not his. Tinga was a part of Zack's family--she was his, and she could not forget what they were, what all of them meant to each other. He had thought he had acted in that moment out of anger at Tinga's weakness. He had come to see in the weeks he had spent searching for her family that he had acted to protect his own weakness. 

Case had looked up from his puzzle and was speaking to his father. He rose and clambered onto the couch, snuggling into Charlie's arms. A small hand settled onto the open pages of the album Charlie had been flipping through. The boy turned his face up towards his father, lips forming around questions. Charlie rested his hand on the back of the boy's head, looking into the child's upturned face. Zack looked away, staring at his hands which lay flat against the cement barrier before him. 

Zack loved Tinga--he could admit as such within the safety of his own thoughts. He had not managed to demonstrate his caring well thus far. She had created a family of her own, and he could love them for her. Zack owed her that much. He refused to fail his sister again. When she was freed--and he would free her, he would fulfill a promise he had failed to follow through with for Brin--she would not return to the world to find that those she loved enough to give herself up for had been in any way injured. 

He was their CO. He was their brother. He loved his family--it was time that he started acting as if he did. 

~end~ 


End file.
